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Glavine battles way to big victory

Glavine battles way to big victory

By Ben Couch
/
MLB.com |

NEW YORK -- The Mets gave Tom Glavine a 2-0 lead to work with before the master craftsman even took the mound, ready to shape the game to his will.

But as Glavine attempted to mold a favorable outcome, the Yankees' bats began to rebel. The Bombers scored two runs in the second, forcing Glavine to create a new work from the scraps of his first attempt.

At-bat by at-bat, Glavine began to chip away. Four innings later, he had whittled out a final line of two runs, seven hits, one strikeout and two walks in six innings.

It was no masterpiece, but the performance was functional enough for Glavine to earn his fifth victory, and first in his last four starts.

"It was helpful to come into a place like this, against a lineup like this and have success," Glavine said. "There's no better place to pitch than here ... there's no better test than this lineup."

And Glavine was tested mightily by Yankees rookie Robinson Cano in the second -- partially because the pitcher was trying to avoid facing Derek Jeter with the bases loaded.

Cano stepped to the plate with two outs, runners on first and second and the spectre of Jeter looming in the on-deck circle. Cano fought off six pitches from Glavine before smashing a 3-2 double to deep center that drove in both baserunners.

"He showed a lot more patience than we had for him in the scouting report," Glavine said. "If I made a mistake there, it was throwing too many of the same pitches in the same location. I kept pounding him with a lot of sinkers away and he didn't bite on any of them."

Jeter then rocketed a ball up the middle, but Jose Reyes made a slick diving stop and barely gunned Jeter out to end the inning.

After the second, Glavine gave up hits only when the Yankees already had two outs, and extricated himself from jams in the third and fourth.

He allowed only one hit in the next two innings, and by the time he left the game, the Mets' offense had extended the lead to 10-2. It left distant the memory of his last start, when Glavine allowed six runs in 2 1/3 innings against Seattle.

"I think he had a little more zip on his fastball," right fielder Mike Cameron said. "He changed up his approach a little bit and that really helped us, for him to shut them down like that."

Ben Couch is a contributor to MLB.com.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.